


What Lingers

by Fweeble



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: M/M, Unbeta'd, possessive Kaneki Ken
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-09-07
Packaged: 2018-02-16 13:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2271855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fweeble/pseuds/Fweeble
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s the casual touches that catch Hide’s attention –the proprietary hand on his lower back, the whispers of fingers laying on his wrist, an index finger hooked in the belt loop of his jeans –quiet actions that are uniquely the Kaneki he knows now and utterly unlike the Kaneki he knew before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Lingers

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve seen so many prompts and takes on possessive!Kaneki and I was up until 5 am feverishly typing notes into my phone, unable to sleep.

It’s the casual touches that catch Hide’s attention –the proprietary hand on his lower back, the whispers of fingers laying on his wrist, an index finger hooked in the belt loop of his jeans –quiet actions that are uniquely the Kaneki he knows now and utterly unlike the Kaneki he knew before. Sometimes, when Hide covers Kaneki’s hand in his own and turns to smile at the ghoul, he sees something terrified lurking behind the mask Kaneki wears.

Hide broaches the issue with Uta in the man’s mask shop, as his hands coax clay into some semblance of a mask under the other man’s calm tutelage. “Are ghouls…” he hesitates, because this is their issue and it feels like a betrayal to turn to another for guidance instead of facing the issue head on with his lover, “…possessive?” He thinks of Nishio and how the man prickles over imagined encroachments on what he perceives as his, all fangs and claws and fierce snarls.

“Some would say we are territorial by nature,” Uta muses, smoothing out a lump on Hide’s mask, deft fingers dancing across red clay, “but I would say it is learned behavior.

“The ghouls you know, the ghouls that you have met, you can make comparisons between us and moths attracted to the light of a burning flame. Those of us who venture into the human world are few; we spend every step we take into your world expecting to hear the beating wings of doves closing in, until the end. Many of us live in the darkness –in the sewers beyond the imagination of common humans, in the streets in the periphery of their sight, in the skeleton of abandoned remnants of human civilization. But all of us share the desire to live, and so we spend our lives fighting for scraps and defending what little we have, hoarding what we have and snatching what we can, or face starvation and death. In a reality with little means and the constant threat of extermination, there is no other way of life, there is no other end.” Uta meets Hide’s eyes, black sclera and red irises holding the weight of truth. “Many of us are intimate with loss. We are born in blood and raised by death; for most of us, we live a solitary existence that was not started by choice, but by the loss of those closest and most dear.”

Hide mulls over this information, considers the tattoos circling Uta’s neck, and says, “Kaneki experienced a human life from childhood,” even as he knows the truth.

“The loss Kaneki suffered must have been learned then,” Uta says, “the desperation you see in Kaneki must stem from a stigma unrelated to his new identity as a ghoul.”

Hide sighs, bumps his head against the other man’s shoulder. “Sometimes Kaneki looks at me like he expects the other shoe to drop, like he expects me to realize some nebulous truth and bail.” Kaneki touches Hide like he couldn’t bear to have him disappear and looks at Hide like he is resigned that he will.

His phone rings –Kaneki –and he picks it up with a, “Hey, how’s it going?”  
  
“Hide,” Kaneki says.  _Where are you_ , he doesn’t say.

“I’m at Uta’s,” Hide says, “He’s teaching me the fine art of mask making, isn’t that cool? Maybe one day I can design one for you.” He doesn’t say,  _Maybe one day I will relearn all the fine nuances of you._

“I know,” the phone says, the voice behind them says as the door chimes open, “Good evening, Uta-san.”  
  
“Good evening, Kaneki-kun.”  
  
“Hey, there,” Hide says as he slides off his stool and slides his hands into Kaneki’s, forehead to forehead, “I love you, you know.”  _I’m not going anywhere._  
  
“I love you, Hide,” Kaneki murmurs, fingers and dark nails digging into yielding flesh.

_I know._


End file.
